Driving Sustainability into our business operations
At London Coffee Machines we are committed to minimizing our environmental impact through better sustainable practices and providing a large range of products that are ethically and sustainably sourced.
All of our Kenco coffees, Suchard chocolates and PG Tips leaf teas are from Rainforest Alliance certified farms throughout the world, and Kraft Foods and Unilever (the manufacturers) both have strong working relationships with the Rainforest Alliance organization. Two new additions to our range, Cadbury’s chocolate and The Natural Coffee Company also provide us with chocolate and coffees that are sourced from Fairtrade certified farms and the coffees from The Natural Coffee Company are also organically produced.
Many of our customers are acutely aware of the need to implement better sustainable practices within their own business – in particular the public sector like local government agencies and hospitals where we have very strong ties because of our ability to satisfy their ecological stipulations.
As far as equipment and parts are concerned we have an extensive refurbishment programme in place which permits us to offer our customers great value for money while at the same time reducing their environmental impact. This is because many of the parts are reusable or recycled as well of course as the main frame of the vending machine itself. This means that a new machine with typically a 3 year warranty may have its life extended – in some circumstances to over 10 years!
Where a machine really has come to the end of its serviceable life we decommission it at a WEEE regulated facility in Corby for proper and responsible disposal and breakdown in accordance with government requirements.
From a logistical perspective we have found that we can adopt very simple habits that help drive sustainability into our daily operations. The biggest is of course that we have roughly 20 members across the country which means we may each act locally to serve our customer bases.
Additionally our sales/service teams plan their calls to be as mileage efficient as possible – service individuals even try phone fixes before doing a physical service call with near to 80% effectiveness. Hard copy brochures and quotations are kept to a minimum by using PDF brochures and email quotes – paperwork can be virtually cut out except for contracts which are generally simple one sheet documents rather than bulky carbon paper copy affairs.
These are many of the generally quite simple, yet “smart” ways that we at Kenco Local Business Service are striving to meet our sustainable commitments. As time goes by we are always looking for other ways to improve upon this, enabling us to continue providing our customers with fantastic services and products with the peace of mind that they are being provided by a supplier dedicated to protecting and preserving the environment now and for future generations to come.